J10 miles south of the Grand Canyon’s South Rim entrance is a giant hole in the ground where miners hope to hit it big with one of the rarest but deadliest elements on Earth: uranium. Despite being only about 17 acres, the Canyon Mine extends more than 1,400 feet into the Earth’s surface, and critics fear it could damage the Grand Canyon itself and pollute the water of a nearby tribe.
Mining has been common in the Grand Canyon region since the early 1900s. During the nuclear era of the 1950s, it was a bit like the Wild West – interest in uranium mining soared and evolved into a highly unregulated industry, where people walked around with Geiger counters and shovels hoping to sell it to the government. for profit.
As the price of uranium plummeted, interest in mining in the region also increased. However, in the mid-2000s, there was a massive market spike in the mineral and the craze was back on track. Although better regulated, there were more than a thousand new claims for uranium mining in the Grand Canyon area by the end of the decade.
In 2012, unsure of the environmental impact of uranium mining in the region, the Department of the Interior imposed a 20-year ban on making new claims – basically a ban on all new mining activities near the Grand Canyon.
Conservationists were ecstatic about this. But there was only one small problem.
Using an 1872 mining law that critics call obsolete, the USFS determined that miners who had established “valid pre-existing rights” to mine before the ban could continue to do so. To have such rights, a miner must have discovered and excavated a “valuable mineral deposit” before the ban – one that can be extracted, disposed of and placed on the market at a profit.
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The USFS discovered that one mine owned “valid existing rights” and was therefore exempt from the ban: Canyon Mine.
The 2012 ban continued to be tested from both sides. Conservationists argued that the ban should be made permanent, while the Trump administration has taken steps to potentially eliminate it and make uranium more lucrative as a geopolitical strategy.
As a result, on February 26, 2019, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) introduced the Grand Canyon Centennial Protection Act to the House, a bill that aims to permanently ban all new mining in the region and protect the Grand Canyon from industrial interests.
The bill was passed by the House by partisan vote and has been submitted to the Senate, where it is also expected to be passed.
While conservationists see this as a good first step, the only problem remains: Canyon Mine, which would remain exempt from the permanent ban in 2012 thanks to the USFS decision.
To get to the Canyon Mine controversy, you don’t have to go too far down. In fact, even the name of the mine itself is a point of contention.
Called Canyon Mine by several owners and decades, the mine was recently renamed the Pinyon Planes Mine by its owner, Energy Fuels.
Outlets have speculated that this was done to draw less attention to the mine. Curtis Moore, the company’s vice president of marketing and business development, confirmed this when he told The Daily Beast that this had happened, “because conservationists made it look like we were mining in the Grand Canyon, which we are not.”
Taylor McKinnon of the Center for Biological Diversity, a conservation nonprofit, laughed at this: “They called it Canyon Mine primarily because of how close it is to the Grand Canyon – not to us,” he said. He added, “It’s funny, I don’t think Pinyon Planes is even a real place.”
As you delve deeper into the mine, the story only gets more complex, obscure and downright strange.
Get this: In its 35 years of operation, no uranium ore has ever been mined. While this is mainly due to a lack of demand for uranium, among other things, it doesn’t mean the mine isn’t filled with other problems – or at least the potential for catastrophic problems.
For starters, the mine operates under a USFS Environmental Impact Statement, as required by the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) of 1986, one originally challenged in court by the Havasupai Tribe. Despite the bans and increased knowledge about the Grand Canyon’s hydrology, as well as calls from conservationists and local tribes to conduct a new study, the USFS has denied it. A federal appeals court upheld this USFS decision in 2013.
Moore defended the decision, saying there was no need to have another study done. “It’s like getting a permit for your house,” Moore told The Beast. “We were already approved – why would you get a new one?”
McKinnon, of course, sees it differently. Referring to the fact that they didn’t mine uranium, he laughed, “If each EIS had taken five years, they could have done four by now. The truth is, ‘he added,’ they don’t want to dive into the facts and the truth because they are afraid. ‘
In 2017, however, the inevitable happened. Despite the original 1986 environmental impact statement claiming that the mine would “have no significant impact” on the environment or the public good, and also suggesting that “flooding was nearly impossible,” Energy Fuels has pierced an aquifer in the mine , and water poured out.
How “bad” this situation is depends on who you ask.
For environmentalists, it’s as close to a disaster as possible. Several groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, have called for the mine to close and shut down as a result of the flood and the company’s response to it, which conservationists and the Arizona daily sunshine involved spraying polluted water into forests and loading water into trucks to be taken to Utah. However, Energy Fuels sees no problem.
In fact, when The Daily Beast named the flood after Energy Fuels, Moore defended it, claiming it was’ done on purpose ‘,’ all part of the plan ‘and’ in accordance with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) and the USFS. “
Moore explained that the aquifer they pierced is high, isolated, and separate from the aquifers. will affect the Grand Canyon.
Of course, environmentalists are already concerned about it happening. McKinnon said, “No one can assure us or them that this pierced aquifer was not connected to the springs of the Grand Canyon – which could both drain the springs and pollute groundwater.”
Although Moore said they have monitors to test groundwater, environmentalists insist more extensive monitoring should take place, especially since “ADEQ has recognized that if there were a uranium leak in groundwater, there is no plan to fix it”, said McKinnon. .
“The bottom line,” argues McKinnon, “is that they have created a flooding problem. The water flooding and pumping out the mine exceeds EPA’s dissolved uranium and arsenic standards. There are no long-term guarantees – there are no guarantees that mining will not harm the deep aquifer in the near future, even if it is not harmed now. “
Moore argues that flooding has diminished dramatically in recent years and it is irrelevant to compare it to EPA drinking water standards, as environmentalists often do.
“No one is suggesting you drink the water,” said Moore.
As of now and as a result of these floods, the ADEQ is in the process of developing a new design of Aquifer Protection Permit for Pinyon Planes Mine, which is expected to be available on April 26.
While this could lead to the end of the Pinyon Planes Mine, conservationists are not getting their hope.
“We’ve petitioned them to make a closing permit, but we doubt that will happen,” McKinnon said.
For Moore, closing the mine would be a big mistake. He sees uranium as a way to a greener, carbon-free future. “These activists are somehow anti-nuclear,” he said, adding, “even though this is the best way to tackle climate change.” He even went so far as to claim that “all of these claims [made by conservationists] are not based on science or reality. “
For conservationists, they just hope this bill passes the Senate, although it will be the first battle in what they see as a long war.
“The passing of this legislation would demonstrate the need to use Canyon Mine more vigorously,” said Taylor McKinnon. He added: ‘But the bill itself is narrow. It’s important, but there’s a lot more to be done, including a multi-tier cleanup and billions of dollars. “